Georgia Last Chance Meet Releases

In the final day of the Bulldog Invitational last chance meet, Ann-Perry Blank set the school record on platform, while numerous swimmers improved their times.

On the diving side, Blank, a freshman, set her season high score with a total of 259.80 points on platform, making her the school record holder for a Dual/Invitational. Also on platform, Alex Watson got his season high and a Zone-qualifying score (304.35), while Owen Blank improved his season best to 287.35.

"They all dove really well today," said Georgia head diving coach Dan Laak. "Ann-Perry is becoming more consistent, and Owen and Alex are steadily improving. We are going to work hard to prepare for Zones and are continuing to gain confidence."

Will Freeman finished the 1650 freestyle with a time of 14:56.76, improving his B-cut time and giving him a better chance to swim at NCAAs. In the 100 freestyle, Christian Riess improved his time to 46.45, and Brett Roberson swam his best time this season in the 200 breaststroke (2:01.06), but both fell short of a B-cut. Also swimming their season best but not making the B-cut mark was Adam Parker in the 200 backstroke, who touched in at 1:46.81 and Shane Hall, who swam a 49.91 in the 100 backstroke. Also, the men's 400 freestyle relay team (Michael Arnold, Martin Kata, Matt Bartlett and Kevin Frankenfeld) improved their B-cut time to 2:53.71.

For the Lady Bulldogs, Jessica Graber had her best swim of the season and earned a B-cut in the 100 freestyle with a time of 49.97.

"We had some great swims today," said Georgia head swimming coach Jack Bauerle. "Jessica Graber was probably the swimmer of the meet, and it was a grow-up day for her because she has really come a long way. Will Freeman did a great job and got himself into the meet. Our men's relay swam great and may have gotten into the meet, but we aren't sure."

"Overall it was a very good meet," said Bauerle. "You always want a little bit more, but we are just going to keep working for NCAAs."

On March 10-12, the University of Georgia will host the NCAA Zone B Diving Championships. The NCAAs for the women will take place March 17-19 in Austin, Texas, while the NCAAs for the men will be March 24-26 in Minneapolis, Minn.

The Arkansas swimming team closed out the Bulldog Last Chance Invitational with another first-place finish by  freshman Nicole Menzel in Athens, Ga.

LSU swimmer Craig Hamilton improved his program records in the 1000- and 1650-yard freestyle events at the Bulldog Last Chance Meet in Athens, Ga., Sunday and put himself in solid position to earn an invitation to the 2011 NCAA Championships in March.

Hamilton, a native of Edinburgh, Scotland, swam a strong NCAA provisional qualifying time of 15 minutes, 2.64 seconds in the mile race, nearly six seconds faster than his school-record mark of 15:08.28 set last season. 

His time of 9:06.59 in the first 1000 yards of the race was more than four seconds better than his previous best and also a new program record.

The men’s 200 medley relay squad of James Meyers, Andrei Tuomola, Hannes Heyl and Eric Zeller raced the clock in another time trial Sunday, recording a mark of 1:26.73. The foursome registered a season best and NCAA ‘B’ cut mark of 1:26.14 on Saturday.

LSU will now wait to see which swimmers are officially invited to the 2011 men’s and women’s NCAA Championships, respectively.

The official swimming psych sheet for the women’s competition will be released Wednesday. Senior Jane Trepp, junior Samantha Goates and sophomores Amanda Kendall and Jana Ruimerman are locks to qualify, but as many as five other Lady Tiger swimmers are currently under strong consideration for bids. 

On the men’s side, the official psych sheet will be posted Wednesday, March 9. Heyl, Meyers, Zeller, Tuomola, Hamilton and freshman Michael Saco are in contention for bids. 

LSU divers Rebecca St. Germain, Elle Schmidt, Brian Gemberling, Daniel Helm, Sean McKinney and Matt Vieke will attempt to qualify for their respective NCAA meets at the Zone ‘D’ Diving Regional in Austin, Texas, from March 11-13.

Led by juniors Shara Stafford (Topeka, Kan.) and James Turner (Ft. Pierce, Fla.), the University of Florida men’s and women’s swimming and diving team swam multiple NCAA provisional marks this past weekend at the University of Georgia Last-Chance Meet in Athens, Ga.

“We had some great performances with a lot of our swimmers improving their position for the upcoming NCAA meets,” head coach Gregg Troy said. “Hopefully, with outstanding performances like the one James Turner had this weekend, we can get more people to the NCAA meets.”

Stafford led the way for the women with four NCAA “B” cuts, including a season-best 22.72 in the women’s 50-yard freestyle. The time is the second-fastest mark by a Gator this season behind Sarah Bateman’s (Orlando, Fla.) school-record mark of 22.00 set at the 2011 SEC Championships. Turner also swam four NCAA qualifying marks, including personal-best times in the 50 free (19.89) and 100 free (43.35).

The freshmen pair of Kaitlin Frehling (St. Petersburg, Fla.) and Trish Regan (Carmel, Ind.) almost topped the duo of Stafford and Turner with three NCAA “B” cuts each. Frehling picked up personal bests in the 100 free (50.00) and 100-yard butterfly (54.50), while coming close to her personal best 22.77 in the 50 free (22.94). Regan’s best swim of the weekend came in the women’s 100-yard backstroke, where the Indiana native clocked in at a personal-best 54.20.

Sophomore John Lehtonen (Rochester Hills, Mich.) also had three NCAA provisional times, including 55.17 in the men’s 100-yard breaststroke and a 1:57.84 time-trial mark in the 200 breast. Other Gator men picking up NCAA “B” cuts in multiple events included freshman Eric Solis (Holland, Mich.) in the 400-yard individual medley (personal-best 3:49.43) and 200 breast (1:59.05), senior Logan Storie (Corvallis, Ore.) in the 200 (personal-best 1:37.17) and 500 free (4:35.50), sophomore

Jason Taylor (Plant City, Fla.) in the 500 (4:21.75) and 1,650 free (15:21.32) and freshman Karl Wolk (Calgary, Canada) in the 200 back (1:46.04) and 200 free (personal-best 1:37.70).

Freshman Julia Treible (Roswell, Ga.) returned to her home state and left with multiple NCAA provisional times, highlighted by a personal-best 4:15.42 in the women’s 400 IM and a 2:14.09 finish in the 200 breast.

Additional UF women picking up NCAA “B” cuts were juniors Angelina Ballatore (Gainesville, Fla.) and Anna-Liisa Pold (San Diego, Calif.), along with sophomore Sharla Milne (Lithia, Fla.). Ballatore touched the wall in a personal-best 4:11.45 in the women’s 400 IM. Pold nearly matched her personal-best time of 1:58.36 with a 1:58.49 finish in the women’s 200 fly, while Milne clocked in at a personal-best 4:51.21 in the women’s 500 free.

In men’s swimming, senior Alex Martin (Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla.), junior Robby Kennedy (Ft. Meyers, Fla.) and sophomores Jonathan Jordan (Tampa, Fla.) and Rodion Davelaar (Willemstad, Netherlands Antilles) each put their hands on the wall and collected NCAA “B” cuts. Martin took fifth in the 400 IM with a personal-best 3:50.46, while Kennedy swam a 1:58.01 in the 200 breast time trials. Jordan placed fifth in the men’s 1,650 free with a time of 15:29.81, and Davelaar swam a personal-best 54.17 in the 100 breast.

The Florida divers also found success in Athens, highlighted by junior Anthony Lewark’s (Davie, Fla.) winning the one (358.65) and three-meter (396.45) competition. Lewark dove to a career-high 402.30 on the three-meter boards in the preliminary session. In women’s diving, junior Kaylee Doback (Brandon, Fla.) captured the one-meter title with a career-high 282.52, while two-time SEC Champion Monica Dodson (Franklin, Ind.) won the platform competition with a score of 276.45.